- Trump regime proposes $70,000 fee for international students to work in the US
Source: Firstpost [India]
“In a latest move by the Trump administration to tighten restrictions on foreign students, the US Department of Homeland Security has proposed a $70,000 fee for international students seeking to participate in a programme that allows them to work in the United States. Under the proposed rule, colleges and universities would have to pay the fee for each international student entering the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme. The programme enables foreign students to work in positions connected to their fields of study while completing their education or after graduation. International students are generally permitted to work through OPT for up to one year after completing their studies. Those graduating from certain science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programmes can qualify for an additional two years. Schools would be required to pay the $70,000 for each new student’s initial application to the program, and a $30,000 fee for each renewal.” (10/07/26)
- Kenya races to trace all contacts after first Ebola death, WHO official says
Source: United Nations
“Speaking in Nairobi on Wednesday, WHO Representative Dr. Neema Rusibamayila Kimambo said the coming days would be decisive in preventing community spread of the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, which has now claimed its first life in Kenya. The victim, a local man who had lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for several years, fell ill there, where a deadly outbreak continues to spread in the east. He flew to Nairobi via Kampala and Entebbe in Uganda on 3 October, went straight to hospital and died in the Kenyan capital on Monday. Authorities have since identified the people who had come in direct contact with him from social contact and his admission to hospital. So far, there have been no other infections.” (10/07/26)
- Kosovo: Lawmakers elect a new president in a late-night vote to avert snap election
Source: WSLS 10 News
“Lawmakers in Kosovo elected economist and academic Justina Shiroka Pula as the country’s new president in a marathon late-night session, moments before a constitutional deadline that would have forced a snap election. The election late Tuesday was a significant moment in a political crisis in the small Balkan nation that has caused legislative deadlock for over 19 months and two early parliamentary elections. Just before Shiroka Pula was elected, lawmakers also approved a law limiting the powers of a special court in The Hague, Netherlands, which was set up to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the country’s 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia. … She will have to endorse the law limiting the power of the Hague court for it to become binding.” (10/07/26)
- Trump threatens to “terminate” top campaign advisers after revelation of work for pro-Russia Bosnia party
Source: New York Post
“President Trump threatened Wednesday to ‘terminate’ two key advisers after they were revealed to have raked in ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars each’ advising a pro-Russian political party in Bosnia as Republicans brace for a potential bloodbath in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. ‘Chris LaCivita and James Blair are outside consultants. They do not work for me, other than as outside consultants. They most likely have numerous clients, but for that, you would have to ask them,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘They are allowed to do work for others, just like all consultants in Washington, D.C. I do not have any idea who else they work for but will, on reflection, ask them and, if there’s a conflict, I will terminate them, immediately!'” (10/07/26)
- Nepal Ends Search for Thousands of Flood Victims as Family Reactions Range From Anger to Relief
Source: US News & World Report
“Nepal announced its intention to cease search and rescue operations for victims of the Aug. 26 flood that killed at least 1,455 people with thousands more still missing. Family members of 5,285 people who remain unaccounted for, including hundreds of foreign nationals, expressed mixed reactions, with some relieved and others unhappy with the decision by Nepal’s government announced late Monday. The office of Prime Minister Balendra Shah said the government will concentrate on rehabilitation and reconstruction including restoring roads and bridges cut off by floods, particularly in remote areas where damaged infrastructure has made aid deliveries difficult. The government estimates reconstruction and recovery will cost $4.77 billion.” (10/07/26)
- Canada: Regime to indefinitely extend Medical Assistance In Dying exclusion for people solely suffering from mental illness
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“The federal government will introduce legislation this fall that will indefinitely extend the ban on access to a medically assisted death for people who are only suffering from a mental illness, Justice Minister Sean Fraser said on Wednesday. ‘Canada has made a decision not to move forward with the expansion that is scheduled in the Criminal Code of medical assistance in dying in circumstances where mental illness is the sole basis,’ he said in the foyer of the House of Commons. Fraser said the government’s decision reflects the position expressed by a special parliamentary committee report released in June along with his own department’s probing of the issue. … Fraser said the promised legislation will also “open the door” for people to give advance consent for their own medically assisted death in circumstances where the illness they are suffering from will eventually eliminate their capacity to make that decision.” (10/07/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-maid-exclusion-9.7372732
- Trump doesn’t plan to return money he stole to buy campaign ads
Source: Politico
“President Donald Trump will not reimburse the federal government for taxpayer-funded advertisements promoting him and his administration ahead of the November midterms — and even dropped a new ad on Tuesday. Following bipartisan backlash to the more than $10 million spent on what the White House dubbed ‘Patriotic Ads,’ Trump announced Monday on Truth Social that his super PAC would cover the cost of the ads. But White House officials clarified on Tuesday to POLITICO that the president’s post did not mean the PAC would pay for the spots that had already aired. … In all, Trump has spent about $11.6 million on more than a dozen ads, according to an estimate from AdImpact, an analytics firm which tracks advertising. The advertisements were reportedly paid for with funds from a $20 million contract awarded by the Department of Homeland Security.” (10/06/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/06/trump-taxpayer-funded-advertisements-01109296
- US regime, WHO request details from Russian regime amid reports of second pneumonia case
Source: Fox News
“Amid global public health concerns surrounding the death of an Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East worker, the World Health Organization noted in a statement issued Tuesday on the X account of Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that it had requested more information from Russia regarding the matter, including on ‘media reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause.’ ‘The individual died on 2 October 2026 after being hospitalized with severe pneumonia. Initial media reports suggested pneumonic plague following an alleged accidental laboratory exposure,’ the WHO statement noted. … The U.S. State Department has formally requested more information from the Russian government regarding the death of the woman who worked at the anti-plague research facility, issuing what is known as a démarche, defined as a request or intercession with a foreign official.” (10/07/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-who-request-details-russia-amid-reports-second-pneumonia-case
- France: Regime halts police use of stun grenades at student protests
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“France has temporarily banned police from using stun grenades at student-led protests, the interior minister said, amid growing accusations of police brutality following several days of student demonstrations nationwide. The announcement on Wednesday came a day after hundreds of thousands of students and supporters marched across France to demand more funding for education and better conditions in high schools, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to convene an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and other key ministers to try to defuse the crisis.” (10/07/26)
- CA: San Francisco regime passes data center moratorium
Source: SFGate
“San Francisco on Tuesday became the first county in the Bay Area to enact a temporary moratorium on the construction of new data centers. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously at its regular meeting to approve a 45-day urgency ordinance that took effect immediately. The moratorium calls for a halt to the approval of permit applications to expand an existing data center or build a new one, which house the computing hardware and infrastructure needed to power newly developed artificial intelligence tools.” (10/07/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/sf-supes-pass-temporary-moratorium-on-data-22466301.php
- Former CIA officer pleads guilty in theft of nearly $194 million, including $40 million in gold bars
Source: NBC Montana
“A former CIA officer has pleaded guilty in an Alexandria federal court to stealing nearly $194 million, including more than $40 million in gold bars. David J. Rush, 49, entered the plea on Tuesday as part of a plea agreement. Under the deal, Rush could face up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced. ‘By his own admission, David Rush defrauded the government of hundreds of millions of dollars, and then misused those funds for extravagant purchases,’ said FBI Director Kash Patel in a statement.” [editor’s note: In other words, he did to them what they do to everyone else – TLK] (10/06/26)
https://nbcmontana.com/news/nation-world/ex-cia-officer-pleads-guilty-in-theft-of-40m-in-gold-bars
- Annual Fundraiser: We Think You Can!
Hey, everyone …
Thanks to supporters ERW, ACS, WH, TP, and CS! Their contributions yesterday, totaling $55.50, bring our annual fundraiser total (as of 5am) to $170.50!
It’s a “little engine that could” thing — every contribution gets us closer to $2,751.50, and once we’re there supporter GL will “match funds” to get us to the goal of $5,503. So please think you can at …
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
… and have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - Ukraine: At least 11 killed as Russian forces launch “massive” attack
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Ukraine’s air force said on Wednesday that Russia launched 130 drones, 48 cruise missiles, and an unspecified number of ballistic missiles in the overnight attack on Ukraine, saying air defence units downed 161 targets. … Kyiv and Poltava in central Ukraine, the southeastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv in the northeast were the focus of the Russian attacks, authorities said. … In a separate post on X, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces hit four Russian targets over the last 24 hours, including two oil facilities and a training ground in the Perm, Samara, and Astrakhan regions, as well as carrying out a response in the Black Sea.” (10/07/26)
- Senile reality TV star invites Iranians to “take out” LA and San Diego
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“[US president Donald] Trump has faced a chorus of condemnation from Democratic leaders in California after his comments at a rally in Nebraska on Monday night, which the White House has suggested were being taken out of context. At the president’s rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, Trump claimed that high prices due to the war with Iran are a ‘small price to pay for keeping the world safe – keeping our country safe’. He went on: ‘They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.’ The crowd applauded the line.” (10/06/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/06/republican-trump-iran-los-angeles-san-diego
- FL: DeSantis declares state of emergency for 25 counties ahead of growing Gulf storm
Source: WFLA News
“Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 25 counties that could be impacted by a tropical depression that’s quickly gaining strength in the Gulf. Tropical Depression Nine officially formed on Tuesday afternoon and is expected to start drifting toward the northeast later this week. It’s currently forecast to develop into a hurricane on Thursday and hit the northern Gulf Coast on Friday afternoon. Parts of the state are expected to experience heavy rainfall over the next few days, totaling up to nine inches in some areas. Strong winds, coastal flooding, and isolated tornadoes are also possible across North Florida.” (10/06/26)
- Houthis claim new attacks on Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Aden airport
Source: NBC News
“Iran-backed Houthi rebels [sic] in Yemen on Wednesday claimed attacks on military facilities and airports in neighboring Saudi Arabia as the escalation deepened the latest front in the Iran war and threatened a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz. The Houthis’ military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, said on social media that the rebels launched ballistic missiles and drones in the attacks targeting King Khalid International Airport in the capital, Riyadh, but did not provide evidence. Flights to and from the airport were briefly disrupted, according to Flightradar24, a tracking platform.” (10/07/26)
- TN: Victim of attempted state killing conscious and speaking, attorneys say
Source: ABC News
“Christa Pike is conscious and speaking nearly a week after a botched [killing attempt by state employees] left her critically injured and temporarily on a ventilator, her attorneys said Tuesday. … Pike, 50, continues to receive medical care after she survived being administered two lethal doses of pentobarbital and was hospitalized following the failed Sept. 30 [killing] in Nashville, her attorneys said. She has ‘severe damage’ to her arms and remains handcuffed to her bed, her attorneys said. … Her attorneys said Tuesday they continue to ask Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.” (10/06/26)
- FBI whistleblower says White House pushed unconstitutional probe of protesters
Source: NBC News
“The Trump administration pushed the FBI to investigate Los Angeles protesters in violation of their constitutional rights and the bureau’s policies, a former FBI supervisor alleges in a new whistleblower complaint. Jill Fields, a former supervisory intelligence analyst in the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, made a formal whistleblower complaint to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders over the federal response to anti-ICE protest activity around federal buildings, as well as in a residential area, early last year. Fields asked Congress and the Justice Department’s watchdog to investigate the allegations, her attorneys said in a letter to lawmakers. She says they violated the First Amendment right to free speech and to peaceably assemble. … A person whose name is redacted in the complaint told Fields that an investigation would be opened because ‘the President wants this investigation,’ Fields’[s] whistleblower complaint says.” (10/06/26)
- UK: Police arrest seventh man linked to security incident at US-run airbase
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“British police on Tuesday arrested a 22-year-old man in London on suspicion of a terror offence over a security incident at a US-run military airbase in England that authorities have linked to Iran. The arrest is the seventh in connection with a suspected plot against RAF Fairford, located 160km (100 miles) west of London, which has been used by American bombers to strike Iran during this year’s war. Five British men in their 20s were detained near the perimeter of the base in the early hours of September 27, and a 25-year-old British-Iranian man was arrested in London on Thursday. All six have been released on bail under investigation.” (10/06/26)
- France: Riot police attack with chemical weapons as more than 250,000 rally nationwide for school funding
Source: SFGate
“Police fired tear gas to control crowds in Paris and elsewhere in France on Tuesday as more than a quarter of a million people rallied nationwide to support school pupils demanding more education funding, according to government figures. The protests increased pressure on the administration of outgoing President Emmanuel Macron. As pupils again blockaded high schools, large crowds waving flags and placards gathered in Marseille, Strasbourg and other cities. The demonstrations showed how protests that began at a high school in the Paris region in mid-September have grown into a nationwide movement — the latest of many that have marked Macron’s nearly decade-long tenure. ‘We need to listen to them,’ said Léa Monimart, a demonstrator in the northern city of Lille. ‘They are 17 years old; they are not completely clueless, and they know what they are talking about. It’s important to show that there are adults who support them.'” (10/06/26)
- Debt and Profit
Source: EconLog
by Valentin Boboc“An ordinary person can earn a paycheque, pay her taxes, cover living costs and mortgage payments, and perhaps even add to her savings — and at the end of the day she will still owe most of her mortgage. This is a normal state of affairs, and nobody finds it puzzling. Yet when a company reports profits alongside large amounts of debt, the reaction is often to question whether it’s really making money. After all, if a company is ‘truly’ profitable, why is it in debt? The short answer is that debt is not the opposite of profit. Loss is the opposite of profit. This imagined contradiction is easier to resolve once we recognize that profit is a flow and debt is a stock.” (10/07/26)
- Prettifying Executions Does Not Make Them Quicker or More Reliable
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum“After Tennessee unsuccessfully tried to execute Christa Pike last week, an ambulance whisked her to a Nashville hospital, where the condemned murderer became a patient in urgent need of lifesaving care. Should Pike recover from two botched administrations of pentobarbital, which left her unconscious and unable to breathe on her own, she might travel that road in reverse after she is well enough to be killed. That bizarre episode illustrates the perverse consequences of trying to disguise the brutal reality of capital punishment by dressing it in medical garb. Although most Americans say murderers like Pike should be executed, the method they prefer suggests they are squeamish about admitting what that entails.” (10/07/26)
https://reason.com/2026/10/07/prettifying-executions-does-not-make-them-quicker-or-more-reliable/
- The Coming Age of Austerity
Source: The American Conservative
by Jude Russo“It turns out that Americans loathe inflation, which is pretty amusing for someone who spends a lot of time writing about parts of the world where a 20 percent inflation rate barely warrants comment. They delivered unified government to the Republicans in 2024 on inflation, and they seem primed to throw them out of Congress this year on the same grounds. (Although the residual classical monetarist in me would like to distinguish between supply shocks and inflation simpliciter.) At the same time, the Trump administration has an ambitious if not always coherent program that needs to be paid for and that only minimally involves the legislature’s oversight. … Something’s gotta give here. Either the American people will have to make their political peace with running the economy hot and the consequent inflation, or real austerity will come and wash all this spending off the streets. A debt crisis could force the issue.” (10/07/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-coming-age-of-austerity/
- Climate Lawfare Cannot Rewrite Energy History
Source: Town Hall
by Vijay Jayaraj“Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel took aim at BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute, hauling them into federal court on antitrust charges. The theory was breathtaking in scope. She accused them of stealing the future. Nessel’s complaint claimed that the companies had colluded, in violation of federal antitrust law, to hold back wind, solar, and electric vehicles and that Michigan families had paid inflated energy bills as a result. Judge Jane M. Beckering of the U.S. Western District Court in Michigan dismissed the complaint, holding that the state lacked standing to pursue the claim at all. That was only the beginning of the court’s skepticism. As reported, Judge Beckering found that the alleged chain connecting a decades-long conspiracy to the state’s claimed overcharges stretched too thin to support most of the injuries Michigan tried to claim.” (10/07/26)
- The Invisible Heroes of Our Tradition
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe“On August 3, 1940, a mere six months into World War II, Ludwig von Mises arrived with his wife in New York City. The fifty-eight-year-old Austrian economist had narrowly escaped Europe as the continent was engulfed by war. Because air travel was not an option amid the escalating fighting, the couple had to cross by bus from their home in Geneva, Switzerland, across southern France, into Spain, and eventually to a port in Portugal, where a ship would take them across the Atlantic. The bus had to stop and reroute several times to narrowly avoid the advancing Nazi forces pushing into France. An invading army is dangerous to anyone attempting to flee in its path. But Mises was also a known Jewish intellectual opponent of the ideology fueling the German war effort.” (10/07/26)
- John Cleese is not a terrorist
Source: Washington Post
by Andrew Doyle“We cannot even be secure in our use of the word ‘terrorist’ any longer, given that so many are determined to abuse it. How else to explain the fact that comedian John Cleese, of Monty Python and ‘Fawlty Towers’ fame, has been reported to Prevent, the British government program designed to stop people from becoming terrorists? Are dead parrots, silly walks and disgruntled hoteliers now deemed early warning signs of radicalization? The complaint to Prevent against Cleese was made by a member of the public, and the details passed to 5Pillars, an Islamist media outlet based in London. In its report, 5Pillars characterized the complaint as alleging that Cleese’s social media jokes and comments ‘go beyond legitimate criticism of Islam and instead portray Muslims collectively as violent, criminal and morally depraved.'” (10/07/26)
- AI Consciousness Could Become a Regulatory Moat
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle“Incumbent AI firms may benefit from a regulatory regime in which machine consciousness is considered plausible but remains impossible to prove or disprove.” (10/07/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/ai-consciousness-could-become-a-regulatory-moat/
- Nithya Raman shows appalling judgment in “fascist” video against LAPD
Source: California Post
by staff“Nithya Raman appears to think she is running for mayor of Antifa, not mayor of LA. There’s no other explanation for her latest attack on her opponent — and the police. As The California Post has reported, Raman’s campaign posted, then deleted, a video in which she appears to call Mayor Karen Bass and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell ‘fascists’. The video also shows McDonnell with a red ‘X’ over his face. It’s reminiscent of the graffiti scrawled on local businesses and government buildings during the George Floyd riots of 2020, or the anti-ICE riots of 2025. The rioters are her constituency. That’s the message she’s sending by calling McDonnell a ‘fascist’. Does she even know what that means?” (10/07/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/10/07/opinion/nithya-raman-shows-appalling-judgment-in-fascist-video/
- Problem With Israel Much Deeper Than “Netanyahu’s Extremist Government”
Source: Common Dreams
by Eric Ross“Israel has killed more than 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza since the so-called “ceasefire” took effect a year ago, more than the number of Israelis killed on October 7, 2023. The supposedly unlimited ‘right’ to genocidal retaliation invoked ever since has left at least 74,000 dead. This quotidian slaughter is not new. For years, it was normalized under the euphemism of ‘mowing the grass’, as Israel repeatedly brought its impunity and overwhelming military superiority to bear against a defenseless, besieged population: in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, and 2021. As a result, a generation of Palestinians in Gaza has been condemned to life and death under the deadly gaze of an Israeli panopticon.” (10/07/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/problem-bigger-than-netanyahu
- More Military Assassinations in the Caribbean
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution expressly prohibits federal officials from depriving people of life without due process of law, which necessarily means charging people with crimes and according them a trial. That’s obviously not what the military is doing with its killings of those people in boats on the high seas. No criminal indictment. No trial. No opportunity to contest the government’s evidence or accusation. Simply summary executions based on the government’s unilateral determination that the occupants are drug traffickers. Given the lack of due process of law, the military killings of these boat people operate as state-inflicted assassinations.” (10/07/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/10/07/more-military-assassinations-in-the-caribbean/
- America’s Hidden Millionaires
Source: Law & Liberty
by Vladimir Snurenco“Americans have a lot of misconceptions about the rich. This becomes clear when you read The Everywhere Millionaire by Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick. The authors open with the deceptively simple question: ‘Who are the rich in America?’ They go on to show that wealth in this country ‘is more abundant, and closer to home, than most people think.’ In nearly every city and town, owners of apparently ordinary businesses have accumulated extraordinary fortunes.” (10/07/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/americas-hidden-millionaires/
- Who Reads? AI, Authorship, and the Collective Conversation
Source: Liberalism.org
“Writing just got a whole lot easier, but reading didn’t. Here’s what comes next.” (10/07/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/who-reads-ai-authorship-and-the-collective-conversation
- The Tariffs Were a Wake-Up Call. Ottawa Hits Snooze Again
Source: CounterPunch
by Umer Azad“There is something almost admirable about the Canadian government’s ability to respond to an American provocation with precisely the right number of carefully selected adjectives. Washington imposes tariffs. Ottawa expresses deep disappointment. Washington threatens Canadian sovereignty. Ottawa says the relationship is changing. Washington escalates again. Ottawa announces that Canada is entering a new era. Then everyone goes home. The problem is no longer simply that Canada’s foreign policy is too cautious. It increasingly appears to have no direction at all.” (10/07/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/10/07/the-tariffs-were-a-wake-up-call-ottawa-hits-snooze-again/
- Britain’s Productivity Problem Is a Choice
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie“Britain has a productivity problem, and it is one of our own making. Before the financial crash of 2008, output per hour grew by roughly 2 per cent a year. Since then it has crawled along at about half that rate, sometimes less. The gap with America, France and Germany has widened year after year. That matters more than almost anything else in economics. Productivity pays for higher wages, better public services and a comfortable retirement. A country that stops growing more productive stops growing richer. Its politics turn sour, because every gain for one group must come out of another’s pocket. The comforting story is that some deep mystery is at work, a curse visited on Britain by forces beyond anyone’s control. This is nonsense. Britain made it hard to build, costly to power and unrewarding to invest. The results were entirely predictable.” (10/07/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/britains-productivity-problem-is-a-choice
- Prioritizing Political Ideology over Educational Outcomes
Source: Show-Me Institute
by Susan Pendergrass“In Jefferson City, legislative debates over school choice often turn into battles between special interest groups, union lobbyists, and trade associations. Lost in the technical jargon of funding formulas and accreditation benchmarks is the actual student sitting in a classroom where they are not learning. [Nikole] Hannah-Jones’s daughter saw clearly what many policymakers ignore. Adult political battles should never be waged at the expense of vulnerable children. When people demand that families stay put to support a district’s balance sheet, they are asking children to bear the burden of systemic dysfunction.” (10/06/26)
- Trump fighting Obamacare fraud while Democrats defend the numbers
Source: Fox News
by Mehek Cooke“Democrats love double talk. They claim to defend affordable health care while taxpayers finance fraudulent enrollments that harm the very consumers Obamacare was supposed to protect. Right on cue, they turned the Trump administration’s fraud crackdown into cruelty. Chuck Schumer claims the administration is kicking hundreds of thousands of people off their plans, while former Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls fraud enforcement a ‘false pretext’ for stripping away coverage. Before Democrats declare 760,000 people victims of Republican cruelty, they should explain why taxpayers were financing policies that some consumers never requested, used and know existed. The Trump administration recently announced that CMS canceled approximately 315,000 unauthorized Obamacare enrollments covering more than 760,000 people and expected to recover approximately $2.2 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies. An additional 419,000 enrollments are undergoing eligibility verification. Every taxpayer and every family struggling to afford health insurance should be alarmed.” (10/07/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-fighting-obamacare-fraud-democrats-defending-numbers
- Steve Hilton’s “Hail Mary” in Democrat-Dominated California
Source: American Greatness
by Edward Ring“In California, the political script is passé. Every statewide election is the same story. The Democrat candidate gets around 60 percent of all votes, and the Republican gets 40 percent. The script is so predictable that voters have stopped paying attention. Even now, in this polarized, politicized era, if you ask a random person on the street who the two candidates are this year to become California’s next governor, they won’t know. In California, the average low-information voter doesn’t vote for a candidate; they vote for a party. That’s the milieu into which Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton has thrown what in football is termed a ‘Hail Mary’, a long ball hurled toward an end zone receiver, thrown in the game’s closing seconds by a team that’s behind.'” (10/07/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/07/steve-hiltons-hail-mary-in-democrat-dominated-california/
- The Motorcycle Murder
Source: The Intercept
by Nick Turse“He Confessed to an Afghanistan War Murder. The U.S. Military Promptly Closed the Case.” (10/07/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/10/07/afghanistan-war-crime-confession-accountability/
- Florida’s Limited Ban on Flock Cameras Only Scratches the Surface of Widespread Surveillance Concerns
Source: Independent Institute
by Abigail R Hall“Data is often shared or accessed across jurisdictions.” (10/06/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/06/florida-limited-ban-flock-cameras-concerns/
- Rubble to Riches: Reckoning with West Germany’s Postwar Economic Miracle
Source: The Daily Economy
by Paul McDonnold“Tobias Straumann’s new book explains how economic freedoms and currency reform helped West Germany outstrip not just the Soviet Socialist East, but many other nations, on its way to economic recovery.” (10/07/26)
- Democrats Need to Understand That Voters Don’t Like Them More, They’re Just the Alternative
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“Republicans and Democrats tend to claim a mandate from voters whenever they’re handed a majority. Apparently, winning enough seats to organize a chamber means voters have signed off on the party’s entire agenda. That’s a convenient way to read an election, especially when the majority is narrow, and voters may simply be fed up with the other party. A voter who wants someone to put a leash on Trump hasn’t necessarily endorsed a bigger federal government, higher taxes, or every idea circulating through Democratic congressional offices.” (10/06/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/democrats-need-to-understand-that
- The Catechetical College?
Source: Law & Liberty
by Cheryl Miller“In his preface to the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of God and Man at Yale, William F. Buckley offered this self-assessment of his first book: ‘Some of the predictions made in it have already been realized. Some of the questions are still open. Some of the arguments appear antiquarian; others fresh, even urgent.’ Fifty years later, that assessment still holds up.” (10/07/26)
- Not for the Swift
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“For several years now, reports Reclaim the Net, lawmakers have been trying to pass legislation to require Americans to provide ID to do many of things on the Internet we can now do anonymously. In 2024, the bill — with the cuddly name of Kids Online Safety Act, it prompts us to ask, what brute would want kids to be unsafe online? — passed in the Senate but failed in the House. The Hill reports that ‘concerns over censorship and freedom of speech prevented it from ever hitting the House floor.’ The Senate bill doesn’t mandate age verification directly. But it does require the FTC … to determine ‘whether a reasonable and prudent person under the circumstances would have known that the user is a minor.’ How could platforms avoid liability for sure without imposing some kind of ID verification on all users?” (10/06/26)
- The Monopoly on the Open Road
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen“Seaflo Marine executives were excited. They make component parts for boats, agricultural machinery, and recreational vehicles, and in 2019, they signed an exclusive five-year contract with one of the two biggest component distributors for RVs, Patrick Industries, for 500,000 units of a Seaflo plumbing part. It was a foot in the door with Patrick, a company with the scale and reach to put its products into many more RVs. Patrick even made an initial order of 30,000 units on day one. Five years later, by the end of the contract, however, Patrick had only made a partial order of 10,000 more units. It was a loss for Seaflo of about $2 million, and they went to court over the breach of contract. That’s when they learned through discovery that, even before Seaflo and Patrick had signed the agreement, a Patrick subsidiary named LaSalle Bristol was completing work on the exact same plumbing part.” (10/07/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/10/07/monopoly-on-the-open-road-patrick-industries-rv/
- Stein’s Law and New Tools to Fight Fraud
Source: Independent Institute
by Craig Eyermann“One of the most useful things to know about modern politics is that no reform ever happens until it becomes a threat to the re-election chances of politicians in power. The reason it works that way is because of the bad incentives politicians have. The system they’ve built for themselves rewards them for keeping the political gravy train going as smoothly as possible. It’s only when reality catches up to them that they encounter the ultimate rule that forces them to reform: Stein’s Law, which states, ‘If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.'” (10/06/260
- An Open Letter To Steven Pinker On AI
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander“I agree that in-person debates are confrontational and bad for truth-seeking. But I didn’t propose a debate in order to seek truth. I proposed it because, under California Penal Code § 415(1), it’s illegal for me to challenge you to a duel. I think your public writing on this topic has been dishonorable. Out of obligation, I will respond to the meaty arguments that you have set out for me. But what would be viscerally satisfying would be to make you get up on a stage where I read your own words to you in real time and ask “Really? Really?” after each sentence. … I’ll start by addressing the meaty arguments, move on to directly impugning your honor, and then we’ll decide whether to debate, duel, or seek some kind of synthesis of our conflicting views.” (10/06/26)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/an-open-letter-to-steven-pinker-on
- Donald J. Trump: The DSA President
Source: The UnPopulist
by Tad DeHaven“The administration is running a television advertisement in which President Trump says, ‘Together we will defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism in America.’ Government-financed propaganda promoting an unpopular head of state is something one might associate with a communist country. The irony doesn’t end there. The ad’s target is the Democratic Party and its leftward shift, as evidenced by its ‘democratic socialism’ problem. Yet it is Trump himself who has unlocked the door the left has long sought to open: the normalization of government ownership of private companies.” (10/06/260
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/donald-j-trump-the-dsa-president
- The SEC Is Watching American Investors’ Trades. That’s a Privacy Nightmare.
Source: Reason
by Thomas J Powell“The federal government built a system that records the lawful trading activity of tens of millions of Americans, invades their financial privacy, and makes investors pay for the surveillance. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) calls it the Consolidated Audit Trail, or CAT. Now the agency is considering ‘fundamental changes’ to the setup. It should eliminate the system instead. CAT, launched in 2020, records almost every order, modification, cancellation, and execution by tens of millions of investors. The SEC requires these records so regulators can search trading activity and reconstruct it long after a trade occurred. The records are collected before there is probable cause, reasonable suspicion, or even an allegation of wrongdoing.” (10/06/26)
- Cassius Marcellus Clay brought cannons to a free press fight
Source: Bluegrass Institute
by Angela C Erickson“In June 1845, Cassius Marcellus Clay launched an anti-slavery newspaper in Lexington, Kentucky, one block from one of the largest slave markets in the United States. He called it The True American. Published by William L. Neale and edited by Clay, the paper openly challenged Kentucky’s slaveholding establishment. Its editor was a son of a Kentucky aristocrat; a cousin of the Great Compromiser, Henry Clay; and a man who understood that publishing against slavery in a slave state was not merely controversial. It was dangerous. … The office of The True American was not just a newspaper office. According to historian Herndon J. Evans, it was ‘armed with two brass cannons, iron barred windows, and an arsenal of Mexican lances and pikes.’ … Clay later said he had filled the four-pounder cannons with shot and nails.” (10/06/26)
https://www.bluegrassinstitute.org/cassius-marcellus-clay-brought-cannons-to-a-free-press-fight/
- The Law Can’t Keep Up with Flock’s AI Surveillance
Source: Cato Institute
by Matthew Cavedon & Laura Bondank-Harmon“ALPRs (which, again, stands for ‘automated license plate readers’) are omnipresent and, at this point, misnamed. Over 6,000 cities nationwide have ALPRs, each of which can scan up to 2,000 vehicles per minute. Over 130,000 of these devices have been deployed across the U.S. ALPRs are misnamed because they do not simply read license plates anymore. The leading ALPR manufacturer, Flock Safety, used to insist that this was all its technology could do. Yet according to August reporting by Wired, Flock ‘has now built … an artificial intelligence tool for police that can identify drivers and track vehicles by their patterns of movement alone.’ … Law enforcement is using tools that can tell officers who you associate with, where you sleep, and what you believe. They call it safety. The law should call it a search and impose the safeguards and remedies that accompany one.” (10/06/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/law-cant-keep-flocks-ai-surveillance
- What a Hidden Supreme Court Case Tells Us About the Constitution
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Rob Natelson“Many years ago, Congress adopted a law that prohibits home whiskey distilling. That law is now under constitutional challenge. John Ream is a home whisky distiller. He points out that the Constitution grants Congress only certain enumerated (listed) powers and that regulating home distilling is not on the list. He lost in the lower courts but has filed a petition asking for Supreme Court review. … Mr. Ream’s case is not hopeless, but he is pushing uphill. In my Epoch Times series ‘How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution,’ I described how, during the early 1940s, the justices converted the congressional Commerce Power (an amalgam of the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause) into general authority to regulate almost all human activity—at least all economic activity.” (10/06/26)
- Government Gets to Decide What You Need for “a Dignified Life”
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis“They will say anything to get a vote. They will lie endlessly with absolutely no conscience at all. These people are totally amoral, but in one sense, they are very smart. They can make their lies sound so good. And the sad thing is, there are millions upon millions upon millions of Americans who simply do not have the intelligence and perception to see through what is happening. And the rest of us have to suffer because of it. Here is Zohran Mamdani’s latest whopper, his most recent attempt to create a totalitarian city, state, and nation. For this is indeed a pure recipe for totalitarianism. He said, ‘It’s the government’s job to give you everything you need to lead a dignified life’. I wonder if he really believes that. I doubt it. The only thing that man cares about is himself. Like most politicians.” (10/06/26)
- Muslims are the latest casualty in Republicans’ culture-war distraction game
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz“With the midterms approaching, Republicans are in a real pickle. Trump and his policies are extremely, record-settingly unpopular. What do you do when: * Your party has effectively abandoned affordability, the free-market, and economic growth * Prices are higher, wages are more stagnant, and the economy is more K-shaped under one-party rule than it was three years ago * Nearly every impactful wealth transfer has gone in the exact wrong direction … You culture war and scapegoat! Enter: Muslims and Islam. … Every time I dig into conservatives’ specific claims, they fall apart upon the most cursory inspection. And when I zoom out, things look even dumber. By every practical measure, US Muslims are a non-issue.” (10/06/26)
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/muslims-are-a-casualty-in-republicans
- AI may come for your job. It’s not the end of the world — it’s the start of a new one.
Source: The Hill
by Gene Marks“Workers are terrified that new machines will put them out of work. Math teachers get scared because they see how calculators would potentially eliminate the need for their instruction. Musicians believed that recordings would eliminate the popularity of live shows. Hollywood hated home recorders because why go to the movies when you can just watch at home? And they were right. All of this did happen. But they were also wrong. There’s a shortage of teachers, plant workers and machine operators. There are more creators now than ever, and more video, TV and movie content. People adapted.” (10/06/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/6130286-ai-risk-reward-debate/
- They’re Still Trying To Rehab Biden’s Genocidal Image
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Biden insiders are still trying to redeem themselves in the eyes of history through a New York Times article titled ”Ready to Blow His Stack’: How Biden Nearly Cut Off Netanyahu Over Gaza’ about how the previous president almost nearly sorta kinda thought about not committing genocide. I am so fucking sick of this. You don’t get any points for ALMOST NOT slaughtering tens of thousands of children. Enough. For sixteen months we were inundated with bogus Biden PR about how the president is inches away from stopping the genocide so we should actually believe he’s a swell guy. Stop. He’s a genocidal monster. That’s his only legacy. End of story.” (10/04/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 10/07/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Punching The Panda: US Deploys New Missile System Near China.” (10/07/26)
- Reason Interview: James Heckman
Source: Reason
“Are Economists Measuring the Wrong Things?” (10/07/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/10/07/are-economists-measuring-the-wrong-things/
- Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, 10/07/26
Source: Politico
“Trump’s Latino coalition cracked.” (10/07/26)
- Fountainhead Forum, episode 496
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Jan Bertram on the Free Cities Foundation, ‘free cities,’ and the situation in Germany.” (10/06/26)
- The Opinions, 10/07/26
Source: New York Times
“The Problem With Hegseth’s Pentagon.” (10/07/26)
- Politics Politics Politics, 10/06/26
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Can You Trust Senate Midterm Polling? A Tale of Two Economies (with J.D. Durkin).” (10/06/26)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/can-you-trust-senate-midterm-polling
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 10/07/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Spirals Into Crazed Fury as GOP Pollsters Deliver Very Bad News.” (10/07/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/216301/trump-spirals-crazed-fury-gop-pollsters-deliver-bad-news
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/06/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Saudi Strike on Yemen Home Kills Family of Six, US To Deploy Anti-Ship Missile Near Taiwan, and More.” (10/06/26)
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 10/07/26
Source: The Dispatch
“‘Friendship on the Knife’s Edge’ | Interview: Roger Berkowitz.” (10/07/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/friendship-on-the-knifes-edge-interview-roger-berkowitz/
- Nonzero, 10/06/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Will AI Make Humans Obsolete? | Robert Wright & Garrison Lovely.” (10/06/26)
- NPR Politics Podcast, 10/06/26
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“Why Democrats and Republicans have hope in the Midwest.” (10/06/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/10/06/nx-s1-5992624/why-democrats-and-republicans-have-hope-in-the-midwest
- The Pilgrims Tried Socialism First
Source: Free the People
“Economist and historian Lawrence W. (‘Larry’) Reed, President Emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education, discusses the story behind his book ‘Born of Ideas: How Principles, Faith, and Courage Forged America.'” (10/06/26)
- Cato Weekly Podcast, 10/06/26
Source: Cato Institute
“Is the US Already Quasi-Socialist?” (10/06/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-weekly-podcast/us-already-quasi-socialist
- Law & Liberty Podcast, 10/06/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“Richard Reinsch joins James Patterson to discuss The Civitas Collection 250, the way in which the Declaration is like a ‘fine blended scotch,’ and how civics centers across the nation are making rich conversations like this more possible. They speculate on whether a renewed appreciation of America’s civic traditions could also lead to more philanthropy, constructive institution-building, and cultural renewal.” (10/06/26)
- Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, 10/06/26
Source: Politico
“It’s 2026. Still Obama’s Party.” (10/06/26)
- The Good Fight, 10/06/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Luis Garicano on Why Europe Fell Behind.” (10/06/26)
- We Came to America for Freedom. Now, We’re Worried.
Source: The Next Move
“Before the midterms, dissidents share their hopes and fears.” (10/06/26)
https://www.thenextmove.org/p/we-came-to-america-for-freedom-now
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 10/06/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“We sit down with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson to talk through what the last American forces leaving Iraq could actually mean, not just for Baghdad, but for the bigger U.S. posture across Southwest Asia and the political reality that Washington may be getting pushed out rather than choosing to leave.” (10/07/26)
- Rising, 10/06/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on recent comments from Sam Altman and Dario Amodei highlighting the debate around the potential benefits and potential harms of AI.” (10/06/26)
- Radio Atlantic, 10/06/26
Source: The Atlantic
“The 2026 Midterms Must-Watch List.” (10/06/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/10/five-midterm-elections-watch-2026/688888/